Thierry Colaw

Thierry Colaw, a longtime civil litigator in Santa Ana, was appointed this week by Gov. Pete Wilson as Orange County's newest Superior Court Judge. At a formal swearing-in ceremony at the Old Courthouse in Santa Ana on Friday, Presiding Superior Court Judge Theodore Millard called Colaw's appointment "a great day for the Superior Court and for the citizens of Orange County."

Thierry Colaw, a longtime civil litigator in Santa Ana, was appointed this week by Gov. Pete Wilson as Orange County's newest Superior Court Judge. At a formal swearing-in ceremony at the Old Courthouse in Santa Ana on Friday, Presiding Superior Court Judge Theodore Millard called Colaw's appointment "a great day for the Superior Court and for the citizens of Orange County."

The legal battle over Orange County sheriff's deputies' pensions may be headed north. A Superior Court judge said Friday he planned to grant a motion to move the case to Los Angeles County, after Orange County's pension fund and the deputy's union argued that the case presented too many conflicts to be tried locally. The county has sued the pension board seeking to reduce deputies' pensions that were granted under a 2001 labor agreement. Judge Thierry P. Colaw said he would issue a final written ruling in coming days.

The family of a 4-year-old boy who was killed when part of a concrete fountain fell on him settled a wrongful death lawsuit against two companies Monday for $975,000, their lawyer said. The settlement between the family of John Dutriz and Lloyd's Nursery and Landscape Co. and Santi's Fountains came moments before the start of a scheduled Orange County Superior Court trial, attorney Thierry Colaw said. Representatives of the companies could not be reached for comment.

A judge has potentially cleared the way for the expansion of Long Beach Airport. Superior Court Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw said in a ruling Friday that the city did not violate state law when it approved an environmental report for the expansion. The report says the expansion won't affect noise or air quality. The Long Beach Unified School District, which filed the lawsuit in 2006, argued that dozens of schools would be affected by noise and demanded the city pay for soundproofing those campuses.

A Superior Court judge issued a final written ruling Monday ordering Orange County's legal case seeking to roll back deputies' pensions to be handled in the Los Angeles County courts. Judge Thierry P. Colaw agreed with an argument by Orange County's public employee retirement board that the case could not be tried in Orange County because it involved a dispute between two public agencies within the county, and concurred that Los Angeles would be a "neutral county" close enough to be convenient for all parties in the case.

A Westminster woman who underwent two brain surgeries after slipping and landing chin first on a freshly mopped floor will receive up to $1.4 million over her lifetime in a settlement reached Monday with a local storage company where the fall occurred. The settlement in Orange County Superior Court between Becky Haines and Public Storage Inc. of Stanton averted a trial set for Monday to determine damages in the case, said her lawyer, Thierry Colaw.

A newspaper delivery firm agreed in court Friday to pay $725,000 to the family of a man struck and killed by a company driver two years ago. The insurer for the Anaheim delivery firm, Heier Enterprises, will invest the sum in annuities to be paid out over the lifetimes of the widow, Mayra Garcia, and her two young children, according to attorney Thierry Colaw, who represented the surviving family members. Colaw said the investment plan eventually will yield a total of $2.1 million.

A judge ruled Thursday that water quality standards designed to protect the region's beaches from polluted storm-drain runoff will remain in place, at least for the time being. Orange County Superior Court Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw granted a request from a coalition of environmental groups that sought to keep the standards in place while the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board complied with the judge's order to review its runoff standards. This summer, Colaw had ruled in favor of a consortium of local inland cities and a building industry association that had filed a lawsuit -- against the state Water Resources Control Board and the local board -- seeking to overturn the regulations.

An Orange County judge has thrown out a family's lawsuit against the Brea Police Department filed after their teenage son, who had worked undercover for police, was killed by gang members. The ruling is a significant victory for the small police force, which was widely criticized for using 17-year-old Chad MacDonald to buy drugs after officers arrested him for methamphetamine possession.

These candidates have filed to run in the June 2 primary for national, state or county offices. Asterisks (**) indicate incumbents; those retiring or leaving office because of term limits or to run in other races are in parentheses. Candidates for seats where an eligible incumbent did not file have until Wednesday to complete their paperwork. Those races are 4th District supervisor, district attorney, sheriff-coroner, assessor and auditor-controller.